A Co Clare mother of three has told a court that she is terrified of a man who hospitalised her after his alleged assault caused her to have a bleed to the brain.
At the Family Law Court in Ennis, Judge Alec Gabbett said that due to the severity of the alleged assault, he was granting the woman a five year safety order against the man – usually the length of safety orders granted are for three years or less.
In her statement grounding the safety order application, the woman said she was beaten by her ex-partner “resulting in a hospital stay and a bleed to the brain and multiple bruises”.
She told Judge Gabbett: “I was locked in a room.”
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Judge Gabbett asked the woman during the uncontested safety order application “how are you? Are you okay?”
From the witness box, the woman replied: “I’m terrible.”
She said that she has short term memory loss and constant headaches
She commented: “Socially – completely ruined.”
Judge Gabbett said: “I assume you are very frightened of this man?”
She replied: “Absolutely.”
Judge Gabbett said: “If this man was to come to your door, you would be terrified?”
In reply, the woman repeated: “Absolutely.”
Asked does the man have previous convictions, the woman said: “He has previous convictions for public order and other things, but he has never been in jail.”
She said that she found out that her ex-boyfriend of one year had been taking heroin.
Asked by Judge Gabbett has he bothered her since the alleged assault, she replied ‘No’.
The woman said she has made a statement to gardaí on the alleged assault.
She said: “I am surprised that he hasn’t been arrested yet.”
She said: “The Garda dealing with it said that she won’t arrest him as yet because she doesn’t have the medical report – she has been waiting for that since March.”
In a separate safety order application, a Limerick woman approached Judge Gabbett on the bench from her place in the witness box to show him photos on her phone of a bite assault that her ex-boyfriend had carried out on her.
After viewing the images of the bite assault on her right side, Judge Gabbett commented: “That’s enough – that’s fine.”
One photograph showed three or four bite marks and the court heard that one bite was so bad the woman had to go to hospital because of the risk of infection.
Asked if she is frightened of this man the woman replied ‘yes’. Judge Gabbett granted her a three year safety order.
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